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I cannot permit myself to conclude, without expressing my thanks for the very candid attention with which you have been pleased to honor these discourses. I trust that every word hath been spoken with a just deference for the learned assembly before whom I preach; for I greatly covet your approbation, and I hope that I shall obtain it. But I have a solemn account to render; for I have had many opportunities. And I desire to say that, now, which my conscience shall approve, at that hour when I shall be called, to give an account of my stewardship.

I pray that "the Spirit of truth," which our Saviour promised should abide with his people for ever, may manifest his power amongst us, dispel the darkness of ignorance and error, and "guide our minds into all truth." John xvi, 13.

To this holy spirit, who, together with the Father and the Son, is One God, be ascribed all honor and glory, power, might, majesty, and dominion, now and evermore. Amen.

Dr. KERR'S REPORT.

ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES IN INDIA.

[We have been favoured by a respectable correspondent in India, with a copy of a REPORT, presented by a pious clergyman, at the request of the Governor of Madras, concerning the state of the ancient Christians in Cochin and Travancore. This Report is so curious and so interesting, that we shall give the whole of it to our readers, assured that they will esteem it, as we do,, a most valuable and important document.]

London Evangelical Magazine.

REPORT of the Senior Chaplain of Fort St. George, to the Right Honourable Lord William Bentinck, Governor of Madras, on the state of the Christians inhabiting the kingdoms of Cochin, and Travancore, undertaken by order of the supreme government of Bengal.

"Public Department.

To the Rev. Dr. Kerr, Senior Chaplain of Fort St.
George.

Rev. Sir,

The Right Honourable the Governor in Council, being desirous of availing himself of your vicinity to the Malabar coast, to obtain every possible information in regard to the establishment, &c. of the Christian Religion in that part of the peninsula, I am directed by his lordship in council, to desire that so soon as the state of your health and the season will permit, you will proceed to the provinces on that coast; and you will forward to me, for the information of government, such accounts as you may be able to collect, of the first introduction of christianity into India-of the arrival of the different sects who have been, or may be, in existence of their general history, and of the persecutions to which they may have

been exposed-of their success in making proselytes-of their church-establishment, and of the source from which they are maintained, and with all other circumstances connected with this important subject.

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I have the honour to be, Rev Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

(Signed) G. G. KEBLE. Sec. to Government.

Fort St. George, June 28, 1806.”

To the Right Honourable Lord William C. Bentinck, Governor in Council, &c. &c.

"MY LORD,

"When at Mysore, I was honoured by the receipt of Mr. secretary Keble's letter, dated the 28th June last; and finding my general health much improved, I resolved to proceed to the Malabar coast, in search of the information required by your lordship in council, regarding the Christians inhabiting that part of the peninsula:-an investigation which I have found as interesting as it is important, whether it regards humanity at large, or as it is connected, in a political view, with the British interests in this country.

To view the extensive field pointed out for my inquiries minutely, would require much more of my time than could be well spared from my other public avocations; and as I learned that the Rev. Dr. Buchanan was nominated by the government of Bengal, to travel over the same ground, for purposes somewhat similar, I did not think it incumbent on me to take up more than a general view of the subject, and I directed my attention accordingly not so much to details as to matters of comprehensive import.

"The first object to which the orders of government refer, is to an account of the introduction of christianity into this country.

"There can be no doubt whatever, that the St. Thome Christians settled on the Malabar coast at a very early period of the Christian church; from whence they, at one time, spread in various directions as far even as Mileapoor, and St Thomas's Mount; but to derive authentic information as to the time of their arrival, is at present no easy task.

"From the confusion arising from the imperfection of Hindoo chronology, from the desire which these Christians have to derive their origin from the earliest possible times, (which may perhaps have introduced false traditions amongst them,) and as all their authentic records are reported to have been destroyed during the persecutions of the church of Rome; from all these circumstances, whether we refer to the Hindoo accounts, to the St. Thome Christians themselves or to their persecutors, the Roman Catholics, we are not likely to arrive at any certain conclusion as to the exact time of their establishment in Malabar. Some circumstances, however, may be collected from undoubted authority, by which it may be inferred, that they have been for nearly fifteen centuries established in India; for we find, in ecclesiastical history, that at the first council at Nice, in the year 325. a bishop from India was amongst the number composing that memorable synod; and, in the creeds and doctrines of the Christians of Malabar, internal evidence exists of their being a primitive church; for the supremacy of the Pope is denied and the doctrine of Transubstantiation never has been held by them: and they regarded, and still regard the worship of images as idolatrous, and the doctrine of Purgatory to be fabulous: moreover they never admit. ted as sacraments extreme unction, marriage, or confirmation: all which facts may be substantiated on reference to the acts of the synod established by Don Alexis de Meneses, archbishop of Goa, at Udiamper, in the year

1599.

"The history of this council will be found most ably detailed in a work printed in French, and entitled, "The history of christianity in India," published at the Hague, in the year seventeen hundred twenty four, by La Croze, the celebrated librarian to the King of Prussia.

"The object of this work was to deduce, from authentic materials, the rise, progress, and establishment of christianity in the East; and to hold up to disgrace, and to merited indignation, the bigotted and unworthy conduct of the Roman Catholic church, in the persecution set on foot by her emissaries, under her avowed sanction, against the primitive Christians who were found settled on the coast of Malabar; and La Croze seems to

have discharged his duty to the public in a most faithful, interesting, and able manner.

"When the Portuguese, first arrived in this country, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, they found a christian church using the Syrio-Chaldaic language, established in the neighbourhood of Cranganore; and, though it was published to the world many centuries before that period, that such a church existed, yet we find their ignorance expressed in the wonder which it exci

ted.

"These christians met the Portuguese as natural friends and allies, and rejoiced at their coming; but the Portuguese were much disappointed at finding the St. Thome christians firmly fixed in the tenets of a primitive church; and soon adopted plans for drawing away from their pure faith this innocent, ingenuous, and respectable people: however after using for nearly a century, all the customary arts and abominable persecutions of the church of Rome to no purpose, Don Alexis de Meneses, the archbishop of Goa, appeared amongst them; and, by his commanding influence, his zeal, and his learning, and on the authority of what he called the council of Udiamper, forced the Syrian Metropolitan, his priests, and people, into the Roman pale. The archbishop, however, had not long quitted the scene of this triumph of bigotry, ere the people sighed for their old religion, and cherished it in private; but on the twenty-second of May, 1653, they held a Congress at Alingatte, and great numbers, headed by their Metropolitan, revolted publicly from the Romish communion; nor has all the influence of the Roman Pontiff, and the kings of Portugal, been able to draw them away again from their old faith.

"Leaving the history of this interesting people, which is affectingly delineated in La Croze's book, I shall in this report, confine myself more particularly to the existing state of christianity in Malabar; and, in order that your lordship may have the subject clearly before you, I shall consider each sect: 1st, of St. Thome, or Jacobite Christians;...2dly, The Syrian Catholics, who have been forced from the Jacobite Church into the Romish pale; and, 3dly, The Latin church.

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